Pen and Paper Translations

T/N: Surprise chapter! <3 I’m procrastinating TT_TT

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After finishing his preparations to head out, Hyunseung stood in front of his father’s door.

“Phew…”

Opening the door of the father who lived under the same roof was by no means a difficult thing, yet for today it was not easy.

“Ahem.”

He cleared his throat and carefully opened the door.

As always, his father was reading the newspaper with a warm cup of tea by his side. Since he could not take in how the world turned with his ears, should he at least be sure to take it in with his eyes?

It was also the reason Hyunseung respected his father.

If he were the one to lose his hearing, he would want to cut himself off from the world, but instead his father had knocked all the more stubbornly on the door that opened to the world.

Perhaps…

It had been to feed his two young children.

Of course. Nothing had changed even at this point when they could afford to live.

He was always frugal, always dignified, and kept an eye on the flow of the world.

Not missing a single thing, from one line of an article about his son, to changes in the music market, to information about his daughter’s university.

Yet he did not interfere. He only refused to let go of articles and newspapers so that if his children asked him something, he could answer.

Hyunseung could say he held a respect for his father that went even deeper than love.

Ah. He had never said it directly because it was embarrassing, but it was sincere.

Tap, tap.

Hyunseung approached his father and lightly tapped his shoulder.

His father noticed his presence and gave him a gentle smile.

It was a smile that warmed a corner of the heart just to see it.

─ Father, I am heading to work.

At his signing, his father nodded and answered.

─ Make sure you eat well, and go safely.

Hyunseung hesitated for a moment.

─ I am planning to hold a fan meeting soon.

He wiped the sweat rising on his hands onto his waistband and added with a small smile.

─ Father, you are my fan number one. So please make sure to come.

At his son’s sudden invitation, his father looked quite surprised. But then, with a bright smile, he nodded vigorously.

─ Yes, I will go with Hyuna for sure.

─ Yes. Then I will get going to work.

With that, Hyunseung gave a light bow and stepped out of the room.

“Oppa!”

He ran into Hyuna, who was standing in front of the door.

“Ah, you scared me.”

“What are you so startled about? You talked about a secret without me, right?”

“Yeah, we shared a little secret talk among men.”

“What did you talk about without me? Tell me too!”

“No can do. I said it is a secret talk among men.”

At that, Hyuna planted her hands on her hips and spoke with spirit.

“Then I will be your little brother from now on, so tell me, hyung.”

Hyunseung let out a dry little laugh at the sight.

A little brother, huh…

If you really were a little brother, you would get smacked every single day.

He did not bother to add that line.

“Use the time you have for nonsense to study instead.”

After thoroughly mussing his younger sister’s hair, Hyunseung headed toward the entryway.

“Ah, tell me before you go!”

Hyuna chased him to his back, stamping her feet with a whining voice, saying to tell her.

But was Hyunseung not someone who lived for the fun of teasing his little sister?

“When you become a true man, I will be sure to tell you.”

“No. Seriously. You are so petty.”

“In the world of men that kind of whining does not work.”

Such whining would not work on Hyunseung, and Hyuna immediately decided to switch tactics.

“I am going to leak the photo of you wearing a cleansing band on your head, you know?”

“Go on, leak it.”

“Huh? That easily?”

“Yeah, leak it.”

But that did not work either.

“I will also post a photo of you drooling in your sleep and write that you are my little sister. While I am at it, I will write that you are Min Hyuna who attends medical school. The two of us siblings can live under the gaze of the public for once.”

It only came back as an even more savage counter-threat.

“It will be pretty lively and fun, you know?”

“You are really too much!”

“Seriously, oppa, you’re so mean!

“Do not mimic me, will you?”

“Don’t imitate me?”

And then:

“Ah. Min Hyunseung. You are seriously annoying!”

Turning his back on Hyuna, who burst out in a roar, Hyunseung left the house.

Honestly. It was so much fun teasing her.

---

The first place Hyunseung went before the fan meeting was…

A dance practice room.

Of course, it was not a practice room inside the LS Entertainment building. It was a place he had separately rented.

Standing in the practice room where all four sides were mirrors and doing simple warm-ups gave him a strange feeling.

Practice.

Hyunseung had never, for the sake of anything, gone as far as to rent a space and hire a specialist to practice this hard.

Even in his previous life, he had done more fan meetings than he could count, but he had replaced things with singing.

At most, he had only done a level of simple choreography in time with whatever was popular.

Although he was outstandingly talented in other areas, when it came to dance he truly had no talent.

However, there was something he had to do, no, something he wanted to show. Since he was going to do it, he might as well learn it properly and do it right.

Swish, swish.

Just as Hyunseung was stretching and firming up his resolve.

“Hello.”

A very slender man carefully stepped into the practice room and offered a greeting.

“Hello.”

Hyunseung also gave him a slight bow.

The man was a sign language artist who worked under the stage name “Handarbeit.” Ah, he was not deaf.

Hyunseung did not know the man’s real name. Of course, the man did not know that Hyunseung was the composer “HS,” so it was fine.

At first, he had asked around for a sign language artist, but it was harder than he thought.

There were almost none.

Even when he found this man, he had a hard time in the process of bringing him on.

Perhaps because he had not revealed the reason he wanted to learn, even though he offered a high tuition, the man declined once.

But then when Hyunseung named the song he wanted as a performance piece, the man suddenly said he wanted to try it and accepted, and they met after he contacted him saying he had finished the choreography in two days.

“Please take good care of me.”

“Yes, I will also do my best.”

Hyunseung reached out first for a handshake, but perhaps because the man was shy, he hesitated before taking it.

“When we spoke by message, you said you can use sign language….”

“Yes, I studied it and have used it for a long time, so I can handle pretty much all communication.”

“In that case it will be even easier for me to teach you.”

Cautiously reading the mood, the man stood facing Hyunseung and conveyed the words “Hello” in sign language.

No. He could not even properly make eye contact with Hyunseung right now. Was he really capable of teaching a sign language performance?

─ I prepared choreography matched to the song you want. I will show it once first, then break it into phrases and teach you.

At those words, Hyunseung nodded with a doubtful look.

Then the man connected the speaker to his phone and played the music.

─ ♬ ♬ ♬

It was “Dear my Beethoven,” the title track of Hyunseung’s first solo album.

─ It is a noisy world. You will always live in quiet.

Soon, in time with the somber melody, the man’s hands sliced through the air, and his body swayed with steps.

─ Sometimes I have thought that was a relief.

Not only that, he was conveying the emotion of the song through his expressions.

─ On days I wanted to cry bitterly, I pulled the covers over my head and cried to my heart’s content.

For a moment, his very slender body moved fluidly to the song.

─ Yes, I hated it. Even though it was all the world’s fault.

When he reached the final bridge section, which could be called the highlight, his gestures and expressions changed violently.

─ On nights when I repeated to myself that we should live, on nights that were quiet, just like you.

As if the emotions from that night he had experienced came surging back, his body language overturned the atmosphere of the room at once.

─ I heard it. Your voice, sobbing so sadly.

The timid look was nowhere to be seen. He looked like a true artist, or even someone who had reached a level beyond that.

─ Even knowing it would be quiet, I should have spoken. I am sorry I came.

With his hands, with his eyes, with his face, with his body.

─ Only now do I murmur the words I could not say.

He used all of it like one single voice.

─ Let us live while crying less if we can, and smiling often if possible, let us live.

At the end, he lay flat on the floor and, as if vomiting out the song’s emotions onto the ground, continued his final gestures.

─ I will fight in your stead, so please, let us live, let us live.

When the song ended, he had not made a single sound, yet he was panting hard.

“Hah, hah….”

Watching him, Hyunseung realized that he himself had been holding his breath and exhaled.

He truly could not remember how the song had flowed. Only the emotions that the man’s handwork, footwork, and bodywork had created remained.

The man returned to his shy self and asked Hyunseung,

“A, are you okay?”

“Uh…”

“Should I revise it to be easier to follow?”

At that question, Hyunseung could not bring himself to answer.

Right now, at this very moment, he was worried whether he could put such deep emotion into his hands and his body.

From the start, Hyunseung was not skilled at revealing emotion itself.

He had good looks and could sing fairly well, but why had he not chosen the job of singer or actor?

Because he was originally clumsy not only at revealing himself, but at putting emotion into things at all.

Right. Art at its core is the work of putting emotion into form.

“I, I think it will not be as hard as you expect. I will teach you step by step, one phrase at a time.”

While he hesitated at the man’s words…

“All right, let us try it.”

He nodded as if he had made up his mind.

---

Hyunseung felt an even deeper sense of depletion than when he worked out and lay his body directly on the dirty floor.

It was not even choreography to the degree you would call it razor-sharp group dance, and yet simply combining sign language motions with body movement consumed a tremendous amount of energy.

Above all, this man resembled Hyunseung when he worked.

“If you cannot bring the life into your fingertips, this performance is nothing more than calisthenics.”

He had said he would teach slowly…

“Your body has to go with it. If only your hands move, that is not a performance.”

He had truly pointed out every single detail with sharpness.

“Mr. Hyunseung.”

Looking down at where Hyunseung lay limp, he went on.

“You need to move the muscles of your face in line with the emotions the music holds. Right now you are too stiff.”

Got it.

Hyunseung did not even have the energy to answer, so he gave a vague nod.

“Looks like you have rested enough. This time, let us go once more without stopping.”

“Sorry?”

“It is best to continue the flow when it seems you have reached a certain point.”

Ah.

Was this how the instruments that passed through Hyunseung felt? Right now, he felt like he was receiving mirror therapy.

“Whew….”

He forced his heavy body up and corrected his posture.

─ ♬ ♬ ♬

The song played, and to the man’s claps, Hyunseung stirred his hands in the air. Yes, he was literally stirring.

Comparing the man and himself reflected in the mirror, he looked less like choreography or performance and more like mere motion.

Damn it.

For the first time, Hyunseung felt something akin to self-reproach.

“Mr. Hyunseung.”

As soon as the song ended, the man called out to him.

Again.

He was going to say something about his expression, about his fingertips.

“Are you learning this because you want to show it to someone?”

But contrary to his expectations, the man asked with a grave face.

“Hmm….”

While Hyunseung let out a low hum.

“My father….”

It felt like he had to say it, so he was honest.

“I want to show it to my father.”

At that, the man looked momentarily surprised, but soon a faint smile spread over his face.

Then the man, who had been so shy he even hesitated at handshakes, grabbed both of Hyunseung’s hands firmly and spoke with resolve.

“I will do my very best to help you.”

For some reason, his face looked happy.

“In that spirit, let us do it one more time.”

Of course.

To Hyunseung’s eyes right now, he only looked like a devil.